Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education: Educating the Heart

We can never obtain peace in the world
if we neglect the inner world and don’t make
peace with ourselves.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama Center
for Peace and Education:
Educating the Heart
case for support
We must understand each other and work in harmony
with one another, because it is our responsibility to develop
in human beings their natural disposition for peace.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
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The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education is a charitable
organization based in Vancouver, Canada that educates the heart
and fosters compassion through creative learning, facilitating
and applying research, and connecting people and ideas.
Committed to the Promotion of Peace
More than ever, people the world over are in need of a voice that speaks
to the idea of peace, beginning with peace within oneself.
They want a means by which people of all ages, faiths, cultural and
economic backgrounds can come together in the pursuit of one vision:
global peace and understanding.
A means by which people will be encouraged to pursue inner peace
and harmony in all areas of their lives: their home, their family, their
community, their workplace, their environment and the world, in essence
transforming lives by “educating the heart.”
The fulfillment of that global vision is at the core of the Dalai Lama
Center for Peace and Education.
Global Reach, Local Presence
Founded in 2005 as a charitable trust by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
and Victor Chan, the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education is
a secular and non-political organization that embodies His Holiness’
lifelong commitment to compassion and inner well-being.
After an overwhelmingly well-received trip by the Dalai Lama to Vancouver
in 2004, Victor Chan proposed this vision of a Center to His Holiness.
Recognizing Vancouver as a multi-ethnic city, a place of peace and
compassion, the Dalai Lama endorsed this concept and inaugurated
the Dalai Lama Center during the Vancouver Dialogues in 2006.
The whole of humanity is … one human family.
This planet is our only home.
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His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The Center holds the prestigious honor of being one of the very few
institutions to which His Holiness has lent his name. It builds upon
the Dalai Lama’s unique and compelling appeal as a world figure who
reaches out to all people with a message of compassion, kindness,
interconnectedness and mutual understanding. It fosters and supports
“education of the heart” through education, dialogue and research.
Although the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education, as well as
the future physical site that the Center plans to establish, is located
in Vancouver, its message will be highly visible on the world stage.
Using modern technology and acting as a beacon of inspiration,
as well as drawing visitors from around the world, the Center will
be an emblem of a peace-minded, compassionate city.
Top Program Funding Priorities
The Center is planning for a physical site in the core of Vancouver
that will serve as a versatile, multi-purpose gathering place for people
around the world. Although the physical facility does not yet exist, its
philosophy is alive through programming and the current administrative
offices. Listed below are the programs that are currently in progress
and that, over the next year to 18 months, will require priority attention
for financial and resource support.
Center for the Advancement of Heart-Mind Education
Inspired by the Dalai Lama’s belief that education of the heart
is essential for the development of a compassionate society, the
Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education is establishing a Center
for the Advancement of Heart-Mind Education (CAHME) to advance
education that addresses the full capacities of children.
CAHME will provide impetus, focus and direction for a Heart-Mind
movement that will help children and youth develop caring relationships,
make responsible decisions, resolve conflict, and understand and
manage their emotions. It will support a growing network of individuals
and organizations – regionally and globally – committed to creating
environments where young people develop positive human qualities
such as compassion, altruism, empathy, mindful awareness and a sense
Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education
Case for Support
Inspiration for the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education
The Dalai Lama passionately believes in three things:
1 To contribute to world peace we must first foster personal peace.
2 We are propelled along the path of personal peace by internalizing
universal human values: compassion, love, a good heart.
3 To cultivate these universal values, we need to change our notion
of education so that both the heart and mind are nurtured.
of purpose. In consultation and collaboration with scientists, schools,
policy-makers and community agencies, CAHME will engage in activities
that enlarge public understanding, share research, create tools for
learning and shine a light on stories of success. It will especially foster
the interconnection of research and practice.
Why CAHME now? There are many forces that make this an optimal time
to launch CAHME. A growing body of scientific research is revealing
important information about the roots of caring. Schools and community
organizations are using this research to develop and deliver evidencebased programs and practices that have been proven to encourage the
development of positive human qualities that lead to more success in
school and life. British Columbia already has a number of distinctive
educational policies and practices that place priority on social and
emotional learning and social responsibility, and it is home to several
eminent researchers in the field. CAHME will build on existing local and
international strengths to stimulate the emergence of British Columbia
as a world center for educational approaches that emphasize the
heart-mind connection, with a view to extending the global influence
of these practices.
The activities of CAHME, and the resulting diffusion of research
demonstrating the linkages between emotional and cognitive
development, may lead forward to the creation of a collaborative
school that will model heart-mind education throughout its curriculum.
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Case for Support
14th Dalai Lama Global Scholars and Fellows Program
The Dalai Lama Center is investigating the possibility of collaborating
with other parties to establish a major program of scholarships and
fellowships, in order to create an international learning community of
exemplary compassion-in-action practitioners. The program is intended
to nurture and sustain secular ethics, compassion in action and service
to humanity in the lives and work of selected undergraduate leaders
and early-career human-services professionals, drawn from institutions
world-wide.
Derived from the successful prototype at the University of California,
Irvine, the Scholars Program would be established at selected partner
universities in North America and throughout the world. Each spring,
partnering universities will select one or more undergraduate Scholars to
complete a mentored compassion-in-action project during the following
academic year. In parallel with the Scholars, there will be a program for
established early-career professionals who are employed at international
non-governmental organizations engaged in working for social change.
These Fellows will be drawn from the staff or colleagues of partnership
organizations and provided with a year of sabbatical support to advance
their work and professional development.
All Scholars and Fellows, with others of shared outlook and interests, will
be integrated into a Global Learning Community. It will include attending
an annual weeklong convergence activity at the Center in Vancouver,
and ongoing affiliation and networking to ensure that selection as a
Scholar or Fellow evolves into a lifelong involvement. It is anticipated
that, over time, the program would come to be recognized not only as
an aggregation of accomplished and outstanding individuals, but also
as an impetus and engine for compassionate action in the world.
Connecting for Change
The Center will host a series of dialogues, hosted both locally and
internationally, that bring people together across boundaries of business,
philanthropy and civil society to build understanding and create interconnectedness. The program facilitates meaningful conversations and
provides tools to inspire personal reflection and transformation and new
relationships with others across sectors and professions.
Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The program in development for 2009–2010 and beyond will build
on Connecting for Change 2006 and Connecting for Change 2009, the
latter a key element of the Vancouver Peace Summit: Nobel Laureates
in Dialogue (Vancouver, Canada, September 2009) which engaged
business and civil society leaders and philanthropists from North and
South America, Africa and Asia. Building on these landmark events,
participants in Connecting for Change will be supported to learn with
and from each other about how to create new cross-sector collaborations
and how to strengthen existing collaborations that address the most
pressing social issues of our time.
Informed by the Dalai Lama’s universal values of compassion, peaceful
cooperation and mutual understanding, Connecting for Change will
continue to support and inspire senior leaders who share a common
desire to create a better world.
Speakers Series
The Dalai Lama Center hosts speakers and public events throughout the
year that focus on key areas of interest to the Center and to His Holiness
the Dalai Lama. Hosted speakers feature topics such as science and its
relationship to spirituality, education of the heart and related research,
and the development of compassion and its contribution to the public
good. The Speakers Series seeks to create, nourish and sustain the
Center’s internal and external communities, and to reach and engage
the widest possible audience through various media and by partnering
with other organizations.
Programs under Development
The Dalai Lama Center is continuing to develop programming ideas
and possibilities that will expand its offerings and contribute to realizing
its mission.
For example, it is actively planning for the introduction of a robust and
well-supported Social Media Network. This Network will connect people
and ideas using the technology of social media to create ripple effects
and accelerate the power of change. With the aid of electronic media
it will build a virtual community of people who share the vision of global
peace and understanding.
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Without love we could not survive. Human beings are social creatures,
and a concern for each other is the very basis of our life together.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama Center also continues to investigate the possibility of
establishing a Collaborative School. Growing out of the activities of the
Center for the Advancement of Heart-Mind Education, the School might
be established through a partnership within the public school system
and in collaboration with universities. The School would emphasize
mindful awareness, imagination, compassion and engagement along
with academic learning. It would integrate and exemplify the best of
Heart-Mind Education throughout its curriculum and through continuing
innovation and research.
The Center continues to explore ways to engage with its local and global
communities in advancing the cause of peace through education,
dialogues and research. It welcomes ideas and support.
A Home for the Center
The Dalai Lama Center also has a long-term goal to establish a physical
Center which will provide a home for its programs and function as a
special gathering place and focal point for people of all walks of life
from near and far. This unique institution will be an important global
legacy providing a permanent home for the secular commitments of
the Dalai Lama: to advance his twin goals of personal growth and acting
in service of the greater good by “educating the heart.”
The Center will radiate positive social change not just in Vancouver,
but throughout the world. It will offer programs that tap into the myriad
international alliances and initiatives forged by the Dalai Lama over the
last few decades. It will also deliver one-of-a-kind lectures and workshops
hosted by experts on the cutting edge of science, culture, arts, education
and entertainment.
The Center’s programming will focus on two essential dimensions of
our humanity: our need for intellectual sustenance and our yearning for
emotional and spiritual well-being. It will be a venue designed for active,
experiential participation, inspiring meaningful interaction between
people from all walks of life.
Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education
Case for Support
Financial Support for the Dalai Lama Center
The Dalai Lama Center offers an unparalleled opportunity to transform
the Dalai Lama’s universal message and values into a resource for the
whole world.
Your help is needed. The Center is an ambitious and complex project;
achieving its goals depends on the goodwill, energy and financial support
of concerned individuals and organizations. As a registered charity, the
Center gratefully receives donations from the local and global community
to support its mission.
Donors and funders can direct their support to any of the programs
outlined above, to the creation of a home for the Center, or to help meet
general Center needs in support of educating the heart.
The Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education is a Canadian registered
charity and charitable donation receipts are tax deductible in Canada.
US donors may also donate through the Tides Foundation and receive
charitable receipts for US tax purposes. If you are interested in making
a gift in memory of someone you care about, making a legacy gift in
your will, giving a gift of stock or securities or making an in-kind gift,
we would be pleased to speak with you.
Donations may be made on line, through Pay Pal,
at www.dalailamacenter.org/donate or by communicating
with the Center by mail or in person:
Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education
PO Box 3662, Station Terminal
Vancouver BC V6B 3Y8 Canada
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 1-604-215-2352
Fax: 1-866-887-9919
The Center would also be pleased to discuss other ideas or proposals
for designation of gifts. Please contact: Victor Chan, Founding Director
or Rennie Keates, Managing Director through the contact information
indicated above.
Thank you for your support!
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Case for Support
DLC Board of Trustees
Victor Chan: Co-founded the Dalai Lama Center for Peace
and Education with the Dalai Lama in 2005. Chan
has known the Dalai Lama for nearly 40 years and coauthored with him the Wisdom of Forgiveness: Intimate
Conversations and Journeys (Riverhead). The book was
shortlisted for the Best Spiritual Book of 2005 (Nautilus
Prize, New York) and translated into 14 languages. He is
also the author of Tibet Handbook: A Pilgrimage Guide
(Moon), an 1100-page guide to the sacred places of Tibet.
Evan Alderson: Former Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Simon
Fraser University, and Founding Director of the School for
the Contemporary Arts, Founding Director of the Graduate
Liberal Studies Program, a co-founder of the Integrated
Studies Program and a co-founder of the Learning
Strategies Group, all at SFU.
Brenda Eaton: Brenda Eaton is a corporate director serving
on a number of public and not-for-profit boards. She is
Chair of B.C. Housing. She has had many years of public
service, including as Deputy Minister to British Columbia
Premier Gordon Campbell, Deputy Minister of Finance
for B.C., and Chief Financial Officer for the Capital
Health Region.
James Hoggan: Owner of James Hoggan & Associates,
Jim is Chair of Canada’s most influential environmental
organization, the David Suzuki Foundation, Chair of the
Canadian chapter of Al Gore’s organization, The Climate
Project, and co-founder of the influential climate change
website DeSmogBlog.com. His is also the author of the
PR tips book Do the Right Thing and of the upcoming
Climate Cover-up.
Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education
Case for Support
Gwyn Morgan: Distinguished business leader, recognized
through numerous awards and honorary distinctions,
including being named Canada’s most respected CEO in
2005 in a survey conducted by Ipsos Reid of 250 business
leaders in Canada, and an inductee to the Alberta Business
Hall of Fame.
Martha C. Piper: Past president of the University of
British Columbia and the recipient of 16 honorary degrees,
Dr. Piper is an officer in the Order of Canada and a
member of the Order of British Columbia. She was named
Educator of the Year by the Learning Partnership in 2004
and was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Merton College,
Oxford University in 2007.
Thomas Rafael: For the last 25 years, he has worked as
a lawyer with such notable and diverse clients as Nike and
Greenpeace and has been involved in the development of
socially responsible housing and other forms of innovative
and sustainable land development.
Advisors
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Hon. Kim Campbell
Jimmy Carter
Tendzin Choegyal
Shirin Ebadi
Mairead Maguire
Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Sakyong Mipham
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Jody Williams
Betty Williams
Muhammad Yunus
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We can never obtain peace in the outer world
until we make peace with ourselves.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
PO Box 3662, Station Terminal
Vancouver BC
V6B 3Y8 Canada
Email: [email protected]
september 2009
Telephone: 1-604-215-2352
Fax: 1-866-887-9919
www.dalailamacenter.org
Photos: manuel bauer (front & inside front cover); William jans (page 3); Carey Linde (others of h.h. the dalai lama)
design by Arifin Graham, Alaris Design • printed by Western printers on 100% post-consumer recycled paper pcf